TechHub - Shoreditch, East London

In my last post I mentioned the innovation centre in East London called TechHub, so this week I thought it would be good to tell people a bit more about TechHub, its location and why it is an awesome place to go and check out.

If you are new to the Shoreditch Tech scene and your a product orientated tech start up, then the TechHub on the Silicon Roundabout is a good first port of call - it provides a great place for new tech businesses or people who think they have a good idea to meet local entrepreneurs in East London.  They can be found in the heart of the action in Shoreditch, right by Old Street Roundabout.

TechHub run lots of events out of their Shoreditch based location - for more details check their calender - but if you want to see the member calendar then you have to sign up and join the network of entrepreneurs.



TechHub is the brain child of Elizabeth Varley  with strategy advice from Mike Butcher (Mike was one of the first people are started following on twitter and has proved very knowledgeable on all things tech and start up!) - both who still are and have been involved in the tech scene for many years, with Elizabeth being involved in various SMEs and running her own personal projects and Mike currently writes for TechCrunch and various other publications. 

TechHub offers new tech start ups desk spaces, collaboration space, meeting rooms and event space for tech related launch events.  Although Shoreditch is the first TechHub location, there are plans to expand to other locations across the globe - to enable tech start ups to have the 'just bumped into factor'.

All in all, this is a great resource for all tech product orientated start ups in the Shoreditch area - if you are going to check out one place in Shoreditch for networking and advice, make sure TechHub is at the top of the list!

What is an Innovation Center?

The term innovation centre can mean a number of things - its a word used to describe office space where lots of similar businesses are.  They normally consists of a mix of open work areas where people can collaborate and bat ideas around, run networking events, meet Venture Capitalist and run an annual conference with lots of awards.  There also innovation centres spreading across lots of different industries; from biology, furniture, business, Digital Media etc.  The idea of innovation centres is to bring together like minded individuals to share ideas and create the future.

The TechHub in Shoreditch is a great example of a innovation centre for new tech start-ups and it really does act as a springboard for these news businesses - and bearing in mind that 80% of people are employed by SMEs, they are vitally important to the UK and global economy.

So what is all this noise about innovation centres in the news from the government about Shoreditch and the Olympic Park?  Are these any different?
 
The type of innovation centres which have been established in Birmingham and potentially arriving in the other planned Urban Enterprise Zones will have technology at the heart of it, not just the businesses actually in the buildings, but the entire building will be a smart building - it will monitor energy consumption, it will run intelligent door access and CCTV, it will have fast connectivity, it will be a place to collaborate it will be a different place to work, and furthermore, it will be connected to other Innovation centres to create a smart + connect community of innovative entrepreneurs and business leaders all over the UK, Europe and the globe linking up forward thinking start-ups, SMEs, BlueChips and VCs.

But in all honesty, innovation cannot be described , it is an intangible, unquantifiable notion, it is not just the created environment - the open space, the businesses who work there, the VCs that are present - it is the individuals that actually go to work there every day, people who know no bounds to the imagination and what is possible in their area of expertise - the thing that does make the difference as well, is the backing they have - when companies like Cisco, Google, Microsoft have put some skin in the game and you have government backing, whether it is financial or other, the sky literally is the limit - no matter where in the UK you are.

Innovation is not a concept, it is a journey.... and it depends who is on the ride with you that counts.